Vehicle provided with movable rails.



PATENTED FEB. 11, 1908.

I F. KQCH. VEHICLE PROVIDED WI'TH MOVABLE RAILS.

ArPmcuion rum) 01113.2, 1907.

UNITED s ArEs PATENT... oF roE.

FRITZ noon, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

- VEHICLE PROVIDED WITH MOVABLE RAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented Feb.11,1908.-

Application filed Octolier 2. 1907- Serial No. 395.646.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Fnrrz KOCH, a citizen of the United States, residingat St. Paul, Minnesota, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Vehicles Provided with Movable Rails, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame,

reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which, a Figure 1 is a side elevation of a vehicleembodying the features of my invention; Fig.

2 is a top plan view of saidvehicle; Fig. 3

is'aperspective View of one of the rails; and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 4+4 of Fig. l.

This invention relates to a movable track for vehicles, traction enginesor other ma- 7 chines that travel on wheels.

' roadbed or I sections'that are arranged in diflerent verti- The objectof my invention is to provide means'for enabling a vehicle,"tractionengine or other machine to-travel over soft or sandy soil Withoutsinking into same.

. Broadly stated, my invention consists in movable rails adapted to bearranged .under the wheels of a vehicle, traction engine-or othermachine and means for automatically moving said rails forwardlyor in thedirection in which the vehicle travels so that the wheels of the vehiclewill travel on a track that prevents them from sinking into the roundover which the'vehicle passes. Pre erably, e'aeh wheel of the vehiclecomprises a plurality of segmental-shaped cal planes and are connectedtogether to form 'a complete circular wheel.

. A rail is rovided for each section of eve wheel of t e vehicle and therailsfor eac wheel are so connected with'each other that when onesection'of the wheel is in engagement or is traveling on its cooperatingrail,

said rail will remain at rest, and the rail'for the other section ofsaidwheel will be moving forwardly to, provide a supporting surface for saidsection when it comes into position;-

namely, when it arrives at the lower side of as herein used, is intendedto include a trace the Wheel.

Referring to the drawings which illustrate the preferred formofmy'invention, 1 desighates the frame of the vehicle and 2 and 3designate, respectively, the front and rear axles of the vehicle. Theterm vehicle,

travels on wheels so that when I use the term vehicle I do not wish tobe understood as limiting my invention to a conveyance for carryingpeople or merchandise.

Each wheel of the vehicle is herein shown as composed of twosegmental-shaped sections 4 and 4* located in different vertical planesand so arranged relatively to each other that they will form a perfectlycircular wheel. The sections of each wheel are connected together or incase the vehicle is provided with a rear axle drive, as hereinshown, thesections of the rearwheels will be firmly secured to the rear axle, asfor example, by ke s 3*, as shown in Fig. 4..

' he vehicle herein shown isprovided with movable tracks for both thefront and rear set of wheels of the vehicle without departing from thespirit of my invention.

Rails 5' and 5 are provided for the'sections 4 and 4, respectively, ofeach wheel, and each rail is of equalor greater length than theperiphery of its cooperatin wheel section. The rails 5 and 5 for each weel are secured to the o posite ends of a flexible member,

referab y a cable 6, that passes over a guide,

erein shown as a pulley 7 The guides 7 for the flexible connectingmembers of the rails for the front wheels are carried by supports 8 thatroject forwardly from the front axle 2 to which they are permanentlyconnected, and the guides 7" for the connecting members 6 of the railsfor the rear wheels are carried I by the frame l of the vehicle, saidguides being rear axle. r v

When the vehicle is traveling alon and the wheels are in the positionshown in ig. 1, the wheel sections 4, which are at the lower sides ofthe wheels, will travel longitudinally over the rails 5 ,-which, of'course, remain at rest on account of the'weight on same, and the rails5 for the other wheel sections will be pulled forwardly by the flexibleconnecting .members 6 that pass over the guides 7 which move with I thevehicle, the sections 4 which cooperate with said rails 5 being-at theupper sides of the wheels andc'onse" uently out of engagement with saidrails E the wheel located some distance in front of the sections 4 passout: of engage'tfieht with their cooperating rails 5, the wheel sections4 comeinto engagement with their cooperating rails and thushold saidrails 5 at rest dur- I ing the time they are movin' longitudinally oversame, thereby causing t e rails 5*- ,to be drawn forwardly so as to bein position to receive the wheel sections 4 when they again come intooperative position at the lower sides of the wheels. lines in Fig. 1,the terminals-of the sectionse and 4 of each wheel overlap slightly andare curved at 9 so that onesection will pass into engagement with itscooperating rail, slightly before or at approximately the same time theother section passes out ofv engagement with its cooperating rail. shortperiod, practically only asecond or two, however, in which both wheelsections will be in engagement with their. cooperating rails andzthushold both of said rails at rest simultaneously. To compensate for-thisandprevent. the connecting members 6 from being I stretched or broken, Ihave mounted the guides 7 for said connecting members in such a mannerthat they can yieldor 'move rearwardly slightly when both of the railsare held stationary,'said guides being carried by members 7 a that arepivotally connected at 10 to brackets 11 and each of said braekets'isprovided with a leaf-spring 12. that bears against the member '11 tohold its guide 7 in normal position;

The rails 5 andi5 for thesections of each wheel are arranged parallel toeach other, shown in Fig. 2, and are maintained in such osition by meansof guides 13 which emrace each pair of rails. v

may be of any preferred construction and These guides 13 may be locatedat any suitable point The guides herein shown" are cast members andthose for the front wheels are arranged slightly in advance of same andare carried by the supports 8 which project forwardly from the frontaxle 2, the guides 13 for the rails of therear wheels being arranged infront of said wheels andcarried by the frame 1. The rails also may be ofany preferred design, those, herein shown consisting of a commerciallyrolled channel 14 having a timber 15 secured to the underneath sidethereof. The underneath surface of the front end'of said timber isinclined upwardly or rounded 1 ed, as shown in Fig. 8, so that'it willtravel easily over obstructions and the sidefaces of 6'is secured. Theupwardly projecting legs the rear end portion of said timber are beveledinwardly at 15.

At the front end of the channel is a casting 16 to which the flexibleconnecting member or flanges of the channel 14 positively prevent thewheel sections from'jumping off the rail butsaid flanges are notabsolutely neces-. saryas' the wheel sections could travel onperfectly-flat ,or unflanged rails. Furthermore, instead of'providingtwo rails for each wheel of a four-wheeled vehicle, I can use two railsfor the righthand "wheels and two rails for the lefthand'wheels ofthe5velnicle,

As shown in dotted Consequently there is a' eraser that is to say," L anuse four-long rails, two of which formsupports for the inside halves orsections of thefront and rear wheels and the other two formingsupportsfor the out side halves 'or sections'of said wheels,

Fromthe foregoing-it will be seen that a vehicle, tractionengine, oragricultural machine which is provided with wheels and" rails of thecharacter above described, can

travel over soft or sandy soil without sinking into same as the railsform a solid. support for the'wheels. J p i The exact construction ofthe wheels and rails is immaterial so far as my broad idea is concernedas my invention, .broadlystated,

consists in a vehicle or device ofsimilar con structionprovided withrails on which-the wheels of the vehicle travel and means forautomatically moving said-rails forward or in the direction'in which thevehicle moves.

1 Having thus described my invention, what I- clairh as new and desireto secure byLetters- Patent is: I

' 1. A vehicle or similar device provided with a wheel which consistsoftwo approxi mately segr'nental-shaped sections arranged indifferent-vertical planes, rails arranged in alinement with each sectionof said wheel, a guide carried by the vehicle, and a flexible memberconnected to said rails and passin over said guide so. that one railwill be move in advance of the wheel while the other section of thewheel is traveling on its cooperating rail; substantially as described.

2. A vehicle provided wit-ha wheel 'comprising two approximatelysegmental-shaped sections arranged side'by side and in such a mannerthat they form a circular wheel, rails over which the sections of saidwheel travel, aflexible member'connected to said rails, and means movingwith the vehicle and engaging said flexible member so that the rail forone section will be drawn forwardly while the other rail is held atrest'by the section that is traveling over. same; substantially asdescribed. i

3. A vehicle provided with a pair ofwheels,

each of which comprises two approximateilpy.

segmental-shaped sections-arranged in d ferent .vertica planes, aseparate rail arranged in alinement with each section-ofeach wheel, anda flexible member connected to the rails for each wheel and passing overa guide located in front of the wheel whereby section be drawn forwardlywhile the other-section of the wheel is traveling over its cooperatingrail, and guides for holding the rails for each wheel parallelsubstantially as described.

5. Ayehicle provided with a pair of wheels, the rim of each of which iscomposed of a plurality of sections that are located in differentvertical planes, a plurality of parallel rails for each wheel, ayielding guide arranged in front of each wheel, and a flexible memberpassing over each of said guides and connected at its opposite ends tothe rails; substantially as described.

6. A vehicle provided with a front axle and Wheels, each of said Wheelsbeing composed alinement with each wheel, members projecting-forwardlyfrom the front axle and each carrying a guide, and a flex ibledevicepassing over each-of said guides and connected at IlZS OPPOSitG ends tothe pair of rails for one wheel; substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto allix my signature, in the' resence oftwo witnesses, this 25th day of" eptembe'r, 1907.

. FRITZ KOCH.

Witnesses: WALTER B-. KEITER,

Louis K. J. Kocn.

